• Wren@lemmy.today
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    1 day ago

    Ducks have diverse mating habits, like humans. They don’t have to rape, but they will when there’s overcrowding, males outcompete females, and/or they live in an urban environment where females lack the strength and space to escape.

    Otherwise, most species of ducks form seasonal pair bonds with new mates each year. Some come back to the same mate each year, which isn’t quite the same as monogamy since they don’t stick together when not fucking and rearing young. A few ducks will mate for life, and a lot of larger waterfowl, like geese and swans, are monogamous.

    • ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.org
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      1 day ago

      Thanks for the additional insights!

      I knew at least the part about swans. There was a huge pair of swans treating the small town they chose to live in as their personal garden and terrorizing people in traffic (pedestrians but people in cars as well). They were horrible but also treated like a holy cow, nobody was allowed to touch them and the official stance of the town was to let them be. So from time to time there were swan caused traffic jams and children knew to avoid them.

      • Wren@lemmy.today
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        13 hours ago

        I haven’t even met them and I love those birds. Reminds me of Canada Gooses, the source of deep respect and utter annoyance as our avian fellow countrymen.

        One of my BFFs is an environmental scientist who loves ducks, which means get loaded with duck facts that spill over onto others.